Another massacre by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a growing Islamist terrorist group, was unearthed after Hindu eyewitness accounts helped government authorities to find mass graves. On top of this, just like ISIS (Islamic State) is enslaving Yazidis in Iraq and Boko Haram is enslaving Christian women in Northern Nigeria, the historical reality of Islamist forces converting non-Muslims throughout South Asia and the Hindu Kush region remains within the Islamist mindset. This is based on ARSA only sparing Hindu women after they converted to Islam.

In Syria, ISIS and al-Nusra, and a plethora of Sunni Islamist Takfiri forces have beheaded Alawites, Christians, and targeted the minority Shia community. Hence, the account of Islamist terrorists in Myanmar slitting the throats of Hindus follows on from the usual reality of this movement that slaughters innocents – forcibly converts – and enslaves.

ARSA Islamist terrorists are known to be targeting small minorities in Rakhine, therefore, the massacre of Hindus is following the same logic of “Alawites to the grave, Christians to Beirut” in Syria. Similarly, the Shabaks and Yazidis in Iraq – and other religious minorities including Christians – have all faced the Sunni Islamist sword. In other words, small minorities with little influence over the power mechanisms of society are still singled out to butcher, forcibly convert, and to cleanse.

It is known that Islamists in Myanmar are also targeting small tribes. For example, the mainly Buddhist tribe of Mro is targeted by ARSA based on the need to cleanse non-Muslims in accordance with the religious ideology they hold.

AFP (France 24) reported earlier, “San Tun said many of his Mro people — who number between 20,000 and 40,000 — had to leave everything behind as they sought sanctuary in government-held areas, fearful Rohingya militants would target them again.”

Returning back to the massacre of Hindus by ARSA Islamists in and around the village of Ye Baw Kya, then it is known that approximately 100 terrified Hindus were taken away. Following on from this, mass graves consisting of 45 Hindus have now become unearthed.

Reuters reports on the testimony of one woman called Bina Bala. She said,“We watched as they tied each person, hands behind their back and also legs … They cut all their throats and pushed them into a hole.” The same individual confirms that Hindu women were only spared after converting to Islam by ARSA Islamists in Myanmar. Hence, the ISIS reality in modern times and the endless historical legacy of Islamic invasions erasing Buddhism, Hinduism, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and other faiths, in swathes of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Hindu Kush region is in full swing within the mindset of ARSA.

The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom reports, “Ni Maul, a Hindu leader who has helped with the search, said authorities found the graves using testimony from eight Hindu women who were spared and brought to Bangladesh after they agreed to convert to Islam.”

Ni Maul continues, “They kept the beautiful eight women alive to marry.” In other words, just like Sunni Islamists in Iraq are enslaving and forcing Yazidi women to marry and convert to Islam – the same reality is happening in Myanmar because Hindu women are being forced to convert. This reality is a million miles away from the anti-Myanmar and anti-Buddhist mantra that is being ushered daily in Western and Muslim media circles.

In recent history, the Muslim percentage in India is relatively buoyant in percentage terms. This is in stark contrast to the utter demise of Hinduism in modern-day Pakistan. Likewise, the Hindu percentage in Bangladesh is in free fall. Therefore, the fear of militant Buddhists in parts of Myanmar is based on the historical reality of past Islamic invasions throughout vast swathes of Asia. Equally important, Buddhists in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in modern Bangladesh – and members of the same faith group in Southern Thailand – have witnessed the Islamist sword and demographic reality in recent times. Also, the British colonial legacy of cutting up “mother India” and creating two mainly Muslims nations from India along with the British altering the religious dynamics in parts of Myanmar remains vivid.

Massacres committed by ARSA Islamist terrorists in Myanmar and forcibly converting Hindu women is far from the Western and Islamic media mantra that is anti-Buddhist. Of course, on the ground events are very different just like the reality of Kosovo, Libya, and Syria. Therefore, it is time to focus on the legacy of British colonialism, the genuine fears that Buddhists have in Rakhine, the reality that small minorities including Hindus are being targeted by ARSA Islamist terrorists, and the extremely complex reality of modern Myanmar.